The now-global trend of Black Friday is one of the most important shopping days for both consumers and online retailers. If you want to get a clue of how big Black Friday is, according to the 2019 statistics it was 20% of total holiday season revenue. Moreover, the digits went up for almost 19% compared to 2018. Also, during the last Black Friday online purchases reached an incredible $7.4 billion - which is $1.4 billion more than the year before.
So, what kind of marketing tricks do you have up your sleeve for this season? As online sellers, there are tons of ideas you can implement in order to drive traffic and boost your sales. Stay tuned and discover 9 marketing ideas that will help you make more money when the Black Friday frenzy kicks in!
Be ready for Black Friday
When it comes to Black Friday marketing preparations, there is a list of things you should have in your mind. The key is in preparing for the event in the best possible way that would assure you that everything will go smoothly. If you are wondering how to choose among the myriad of cool ideas and preparation hacks, it certainly won’t be an easy task.
Some of the things you should pay attention to are:
- technical website issues
- mobile optimization
- promotions, discounts, and prices
- product descriptions
- SEO
- product images
- schedule content calendar
Technical Website Issues
Some of the things you should check when it comes to technical website issues are site speed and mobile optimization. Page loading time is your number one enemy and it will affect traffic and consequently your sales. Use tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check for the speed and remember that you should keep it faster than 3 seconds. This and similar tools will recommend which areas of your website need tweaking, so you will know exactly where the problem is and how to fix it.
Mobile Optimization
Another thing you should check is whether your website is running smoothly on mobile devices. Optimizing your website for mobile use is crucial, as we live in a world where almost 2 billion people opted for purchasing via their mobile device in 2019. Even if the customer doesn’t end up buying, they might browse your website on their phones. Keep in mind that every fourth dollar earned in your ecommerce will come from a mobile device.
Product Descriptions
Checking and updating your product description is yet another way to prepare for the Black Friday frenzy. Make your product description as effective and alluring as you can by using some of the common tips and tricks. First, you should have in mind the audience you are writing for and use power words that might trigger the desire to proceed to the checkout. Always think of something that might get them closer to your product and a way to make it attractive.
SEO
SEO optimization of your product description and your other content is as important as the message you want to convey. Sure, you can write an incredible description or a very informative blog post, but, what’s the use of it if no one is going to read it? This is why you need to pay attention to all the SEO details that can get your description (and website) ranked as high as possible in the search engines.
Product Images
You will need to select great product images that will represent your product in the best possible light. If you are hoping to profit from your Black Friday marketing campaign you should invest in great product photos.
Schedule Content Calendar
In addition, you will also need to carefully schedule your promotion content calendar. However, finalizing it completely at least a couple of weeks before the desired date is often overseen by inexperienced sellers.
On the good side, there are plenty of resources where you can learn about this on the internet. Some of the things you can include in your marketing calendar are product images, ads, emails, social media posts, discounts, gifts, and promos.
Time for Money-Making Ideas
When creating an event/season oriented promotion you are giving the consumers a chance to get your product along with certain benefits. By incorporating promotions, discounts, and sales into your Black Friday marketing campaign you assure your customers with a feeling of saving more. As a matter of fact, this price promotion saving concept has proven to be very effective. To dive deeper into the promotion ideas and techniques check out the next portion of text.
1. Flash Sale or Hourly Deals
Flash sale or hourly deals are a type of promotion many ecommerce stores tend to implement into their marketing campaign. It is a promotion that lasts for a short period of time and it is characterized by higher discounts but limited quantities. Ecommerce owners should know that it can increase sales by 35% and it also gives a chance to the customers to get a discount on every product.
Using emails when driving hourly sales has proven effective, as well as the flash sales that last up to 3 hours. And when it comes to scheduling this kind of promo, the best time is evening. This can lead to a 30% higher revenue than flash sales scheduled for any other part of the day.
2. A Gift Per Purchase
Everyone loves gifts - especially when it is shopping time. Give your customer an opportunity to get a gift with every purchase they make. This little trick is a great way to boost transactions on Black Friday along with other promotions. Some of the best gifts you can feature are cheap products related to your own service/product which preferably have no shipping costs. Additionally, you can set a monetary limit to purchases that are eligible for the gift. For example, you can provide gifts to customers who decide to spend more than $30 on Black Friday. You can also make the promo automatic using Shopify’s Free Gifts that allow you to set different parameters.
3. Use Cyber Monday
After Black Friday comes Cyber Monday as one of the best shopping events for ecommerces. Ecommerce owners can include this as a part of their promotion and prolong the offer up until Cyber Monday. Since the rise of ecommerce over the last two decades is obvious, the need for Cyber Monday is only logical. So, why not use it? Extending the sale from Friday to Monday gives the seller more time to reach their sales goals. Just to remind you, there was $9 billion revenue on Cyber Monday in 2019, and the third of that was purchased via mobile devices according to Adobe Analytics.
4. Release A New Product
Attracting more customers doesn’t always mean incorporating discount into your Black Friday marketing strategy. You can achieve a similar effect by releasing a new product. The new product section is always the most visited section of every ecommerce. Adding new item or items to your assortment can be done in several ways. First of all, you can add it a few days before Black Friday and or you can add it exclusively on that day and see how that works for your business. Make sure that your customers know that it is a one time offer and how much time they have before you remove the offer. This way the buyers will have the feeling of urgency to buy it as it won’t be in stock afterward.
5. Create A Pre-Black Friday Hype
Using email marketing or banners on the website are great promotional tools that can lead to more sales. What can additionally help ecommerce create an increase in profit margin is pre-Black Friday promotion. This way you can target both existing and potential customers and build-up the shopping hype. As for the old customers, you can send them special discount codes, coupons, or some special VIP benefits. On the other hand, if you want to email potential customers you can include details about all the promotions and offers for Black Friday.
Also, make sure to craft the subject lines carefully so that they don’t look spammy and always include a link towards your website in the email. The most important aspect of this marketing tool is definitely the target audience or your email list. You can compose a list in time by running some ads and carefully selecting who needs to get info about your offers.
6. Offer Product Bundles & Loot Boxes
If you are selling products that can be combined or sold together you can include bundle offers with a discount during Black Friday. Not only that - if you sell fewer items you can even make a bundle of all your items and sell them as one. Another great way to incorporate bundles into your Black Friday marketing campaign is to offer mystery boxes. These boxes, often called loot boxes, can have numerous items in them and they have a certain price. The surprise effect and thrill behind this marketing tool is what makes the customers buy it - similar to the impulse buying. One can never know what they can get, and that is the charm of it.
7. Add Free Shipping To The Promotion
The free shipping option can be a turning point when one is browsing through the shop list. The majority of buyers out there will go through with the purchase if there is a free shipping option. It is more likely that people will add more items into their shopping bags to reach the free shipping limit. In case you cannot incorporate any discounts into your Black Friday campaign, you should consider providing free shipping for the day. If you can add the same-day delivery option along with free shipping, the success of your marketing campaign is almost inevitable.
8. Include Gift Cards As An Option
When talking about small business owners and marketing tips for Black Friday, gift cards are yet another great tool. When potential customers are choosing gifts for their friends, associates, and family they can simply opt for a gift card. There is nothing that says holidays like a gift card - as it is one of the most popular presents nowadays. Those who are not sure of what kind of gift they want can always go down this path. By letting your customers know that you offer this service too, you can help them decide to make a purchase faster.
9.Buy 2 Get 1 For Free
You don’t want to incorporate bundles into your campaign but you would love to sell more? Then, you can opt for something simpler than that - make every third item in the shopping bag free. This way your customers will pay for two and get the cheapest one for free. We all know that buyers love free stuff, even if it means paying for two items to get it. The psychological effect is similar to that of the gift per purchase method, as the customers get the sense that they are saving money.
Conclusion: Let’s Get Down To Business
There are so many effective ways to compose your ecommerce Black Friday marketing strategy. Take a good look at all the tools and ideas mentioned here that could help you boost your traffic and sales. One of the most popular and greatest shopping weekends is ahead of us, and there is plenty of time to compose your own promotional campaign. And click here for a more general guide (not just marketing) for ecommerce BFCM.
